Sushant Singh Rajput and Sanjana Sanghi-starrer Dil Bechara is an adaption of John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars and carries along with it, the madness and love, before filling our hearts with heartbreak and misery. The movie got released on 24th July, 2020, on the OTT platform Disney+ Hotstar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as all movie theatres are shut indefinitely. The movie has been directed by Mukesh Chhabra and is his debut film as a director. It is also Sanjana Sanghi’s debut film.
Call it irony or something else, but Rajput’s last film is based on an emotional roller coaster ride that left people choked after it ended. The movie is about two people who are united by destiny and circumstances; they meet and fall in love. The couple has the most unique and quirkiest names we have heard in the history of cinema.
Rajput plays the role of Emannuel Rajkumar Junior aka Manny, and Sanghi plays the role of Kizzie Basu. When they both meet each other for the first time at a college fest, Kizzie is roaming around the college and stumbles upon Manny dancing to a Bhojpuri song while paying tribute to Rajnikanth with his best friend JP, played by actor Sahil Vaid. Manny asks her what her name means, to which she replies, “Someone who doesn’t leave easily.” To this, he teases her by calling her a “Chipku“.
Just like any other Bollywood romantic film, their story is filled with multiple scenes of madness and mayhem. As the story proceeds, we see passion and romance and between them becoming a lot more intimate. Those who have seen the Hollywood movie The Fault In Our Stars or read Green’s book know how the movie ends and why it is so emotional.
Characters like these, who have some terminal illness, are filled with hope and joy, as they try to fill the air with happiness with their free-spirited demeanour. Just like Aman from Kal Ho Naa Ho, Rajput joins the elite list. Here’s an actor who had it in him to take on risky roles and blend into its psyche. He was given dialogues that echo the feelings he probably had in reality. There is a scene in which he is talking to Kizzie’s father, played by actor Saswata Chatterjee, wherein he says that he has a lot of dreams, but could not fulfil all of them.
There is another scene where all cancer patient are sitting in a cancer support group meeting and Manny stands up to talk about his osteosarcoma, due to which he loses one of his legs. But nevertheless, he says, “I am a fighter and I fought well.” It’s difficult not to get emotional when this scene comes in the movie. Manny is one of those characters whom you would want to be friends with, want to console and have a conversation with. Manny also has some adorable scenes with Kizzie’s mother, played by actor Swastika Mukherjee. Whenever the two sit with each other, there is both awkwardness and joyousness in the atmosphere.
As far as Kizzie is concerned, she is a fragile and an emotional soul, but there is something daring about her too. Sanghi has an innocent presence and fills her role with panache. The movie is seen through her perspective, as she is the narrator and, true to her name, fights till the end and faces all hardships and battles that come her way.
Chhabra, the director of the film, allows Kizzie and Manny to take the movie into their own hands and let their emotions and feelings flow smoothly. As far as the music of the film is concerned, AR Rahman’s music blends with the mood of the story, as he understood the storytelling well and knew the kind of music it needed.
This is Bollywood for you, filled with romance, music and a happy ending. But in case of Dil Bechara, it failed to tick the last box, as Kizzie says at the beginning of the film how she always wanted a Bollywood-ish life, and how harsh the reality could be; how it’s impossible for real life to be the exact replica of reel life, and how there is no happy ending in the former.
As the film reaches its climax, Kizzie’s words begin to echo in our minds, as it is the last time we will see Sushant Singh Rajput on screen. One scene in the movie that gave me goosebumps was when, after his funeral, Kizzie, along with her family and friends, comes to the screening of the film they made, and gets emotional when Manny asks her for the last time “Seri, Kizzie Basu?,” and she emotionally nods her head and says back “Seri” to him. That was the time when it all got real for me to realise that Bollywood has lost a young, talented and hardworking actor such as Sushant.